Student Reporting in government schools

For inquiries related to reporting student achievement against the Victorian Curriculum F-10 Achievement Standards, government schools are advised to contact the Department of Education and Training through the Student Reports mailbox at
student.reports@edumail.vic.gov.au

The Australian Curriculum was developed by Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (ACARA). State and territory educational jurisdictions maintain the responsibility for the implementation of the Australian Curriculum. The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) is responsible for the development of the curriculum for Victorian government and Catholic schools. Independent schools may use the Victorian curriculum as a model and resource for the effective implementation of the Australian Curriculum.

AusVELS was a transitional framework developed to provide a single coherent curriculum for Victorian students in Prep to Year 10. This framework enabled English, Mathematics, History and Science from the Australian Curriculum to be integrated with the remaining curriculum areas from VELS. AusVELS was implemented from 2013 - 2016. A second iteration of the F–10 curriculum was planned, when the remaining areas of the Australian Curriculum were finalised by ACARA.

The new Victorian Curriculum F–10 is the second iteration of the F–10 curriculum. The Victorian Curriculum F–10 incorporates and reflects much of the Australian Curriculum F–10, but differs in some important respects, most notably the:

Representation of the curriculum as a continuum of learning represented as levels of learning not years of schooling. This enables the development of targeted learning programs for all students, where the curriculum is used to plan in relation to the actual learning level of each student rather than their assumed level of learning based on age or years of schooling

Structure that includes both learning areas and capabilities. The capabilities in Victorian Curriculum F–10 are structured in the same way as the learning areas, with content descriptions and achievement standards. The capabilities are a set of discrete knowledge and skills that can and should be taught explicitly in and through the learning areas, but are not fully defined by any of the learning areas or disciplines.

With the exception of English as an Additional Language (EAL), schools should be using the new Victorian Curriculum F-10 in 2018. AusVELS was a transitional framework and was archived at the end 2016.

The VCAA aims to give schools access to a new curriculum for a year before they are required to implement it. The Victorian Curriculum was released in September 2015. In this release some of the language curricula and English as an Additional Language (EAL) curriculum had not been finalised. Schools have been given the option to continue to use the AusVELS for English as an Additional Language.

All government and Catholic sector schools must provide access to the content set out in the Victorian Curriculum F–10, and report against the achievement standards.

This approach should not be interpreted as meaning schools should be required to provide these curriculum areas as discrete timetabled subjects. The focus should be on ensuring that the teaching and learning program as a whole provides the content set out in the Victorian Curriculum F–10 and enables reporting progress against the achievement standards. The way the school curriculum is structured and delivered is a matter for an individual school or network of schools.

Schools and teachers continue to have the flexibility to enable students to progress at different rates through the 'learning map' provided by the curriculum while reporting against common standards.

The VCAA does not mandate times for any curriculum area. Government schools are required to deliver physical education for a minimum time during the school week, and Catholic and Independent schools have additional requirements. You can refer to the
Hints and Tips section of the Curriculum Planning Portal for extra information.

The physical education requirements for government schools are as follows:

Years F–3: 20-30 minutes a day of physical education.

Years 4–6: 3 hours per week of physical education and sport with a minimum provision of 50 per cent for physical education.

Years 7–10: 100 minutes per week for physical education and 100 minutes per week for sport.

As with previous Victorian curricula, the organisation of the school teaching and learning program for Prep to year 10 remains the responsibility of individual schools.

The VCAA remains committed to the enduring importance of these ‘lenses’ through which to view the curriculum and develop teaching and learning programs. The learning about the cross-curriculum priorities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures, Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia, and Sustainability is embedded in the curriculum areas of the Victorian Curriculum F–10, and are not a separate curriculum.

The Victorian Curriculum F–10 includes four capabilities: Critical and Creative Thinking, Ethical Capability, Intercultural Capability, and Personal and Social Capability. A key distinction between the Australian Curriculum and the Victorian Curriculum F–10 is the provision of content descriptions and achievement standards for these four capabilities. The design of the Victorian Curriculum F–10 acknowledges that capabilities are a set of discrete knowledge and skills that can and should be taught explicitly in and through the learning areas, but are not fully defined by any of the learning areas or disciplines.

More information on the Capabilities is published on the Victorian Curriculum F–10 website in the Curriculum Design section.

While schools must assess and report against the achievement standards from the Victorian Curriculum F-10, schools have flexibility in the organisation and structure of the learning program. For example, schools can use the five outcomes from the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF) as the curriculum organisers for the early years teaching and learning program.

Full school curriculum plans and implementation (that is, reporting student achievement against the learning achievement standards set out in the Victorian Curriculum F–10) should be in place in all schools from the start of the 2017 school year. This maintains a focus on the importance of the provision of the whole curriculum to every student, but across stages of schooling rather than at every year level.

Decisions about the teaching and learning program within that structure and individual student learning programs are the responsibility of the school principal and teachers. This is particularly the case for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Schools must ensure that every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student has an individual learning plan. If a school proposes for any student an individual learning program that departs from the provision model set out in the whole-school curriculum plan that decision should be made in conjunction with the student and the student’s parents/carers, and must be approved by the school principal.

Exceptions might include students who are following individual learning plans, students undertaking school-based apprenticeships or students undertaking VCE studies in Year 10.

The objectives of the Victorian Curriculum are the same for all students. The curriculum offers flexibility for teachers to tailor their teaching in ways that provide rigorous, relevant and engaging learning and assessment opportunities for students with disabilities.

Most students with disabilities can engage with the curriculum provided the necessary adjustments are made to the complexity of the curriculum content and to the means through which students demonstrate their knowledge, skills and understanding.

For some learners, making adjustments to instructional processes and to assessment strategies enables students to achieve educational standards commensurate with their peers.

For other students, teachers will need to make appropriate adjustments to the complexity of the curriculum content, focusing instruction on content different to that taught to others in their age group. It follows that adjustments will also need to be made to how the student's progress is monitored, assessed and reported.

For a small percentage of students with disabilities, their learning will be well below the Victorian Curriculum Foundation standards. Most of these students have a significant intellectual disability. 'Towards Foundation Level Victorian Curriculum' provides this cohort of students with access to curriculum content and standards that enable students to move toward the learning described at Foundation level.

The 'Towards Foundation Level Victorian Curriculum' is integrated directly into the curriculum and is referred to as 'Levels A to D'.

The primary function of the codes used on the Victorian Curriculum website is to support the delivery of the curriculum in a digital format. When using filters to browse the curriculum documents, the codes establish the parts of the curriculum you may be looking for.

The following example outlines the code components:

VC: name of the curriculum (i.e., the
Victorian Curriculum)

CCT: name of the curriculum area (for this example,
Critical and Creative Thinking)

M: name of the strand (in this case, 'M' stands for the Critical and Creative Thinking strand
Meta-Cognition)

001: unique numerical identifier.

In this example, the concatenated code is VCCCTM001, which can be unpacked to read
Victorian
Curriculum/Critical and
Creative
Thinking/ Meta-Cognition/001 (unique numerical identifier).

All Victorian government and Catholic schools are required to provide written reports on student achievement against the Victorian Curriculum F-10 achievement standards for every student at least twice per year.

Specific sectoral requirements related to curriculum provision and reporting, including software reporting packages, CASES21 and so on, are the responsibility of the relevant sectoral authorities, and not the VCAA. For specific information on reporting, please contact your relevant school sector.

The VCAA does provide curriculum planning and reporting guidelines to assist Victorian schools in developing whole-school curriculum plans and reporting student learning achievement based on the Victorian Curriculum F–10.

​ ​​​​​Online Professional Learning Session

An introductory session into the top nine frequently asked questions has been made available. The following PowerPoint contains general information, including links which you are free to use. This presentation contains general information only.